Apartheid not the only enemy
Ma Winnie had to fight patriarchy
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s struggle for our liberation wasn’t just a fight against an evil and violent system of apartheid, it was also a battle against patriarchy.
It is important to understand that apartheid was the epitome of male domination and subjugation on those perceived to be weak – black males and women.
For an African woman to rise up and challenge those perceptions took an equally exceptional person of Madikizela-Mandela’s calibre.
Mama Winnie was fearless. She was brave for standing up against a violent system when she was most vulnerable after her husband Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for life for treason.
She was left with their two young children and at the mercy of the hated security branch forces who were capable of doing anything at any time to achieve complete white domination and supremacy.
She ensured that Madiba’s name became a symbol of our struggle for liberation and emancipation of women in this country.
She could have taken off to exile with her children, but instead she chose to stay and bear the heat like millions of South Africans who were subjected to detentions, shootings and torture by apartheid police.
When Mandela was arrested, he was a matured and wellrespected leader.
Although Madikizela-Mandela was in the ANC Youth League when they met, she was just Mandela’s wife and a novice compared to his achievements and his stature as a leader.
Thus, when Mandela was sent to Robben Island, the powers-that-be never contemplated that Mama Winnie would rise up and grab the spear from her husband. She picked up the fight on our behalf while she was raising two young kids on her own.
She ignored the danger she was bringing to herself and her children, and continued to stand up against the apartheid regime. She would be shunted to prison at ungodly hours, leaving her two children screaming after their mother.
Any lesser person would have been broken and abandoned the struggle to be with her young children. But not Mama Winnie.
The more they detained and banished her, the stronger she became.
She was always next to the poor and downtrodden at informal settlements, at service delivery protests and funerals of those who were brutalised by the system.
She carried the pain of the poor mothers who had no voice in this country but who were expected to nurse the wounds of their husbands and children who were brutalised by the system.
After our first democratic elections, when most politicians started amassing wealth and moving away from the poor communities because they believed the Struggle was over, Madikizela-Mandela chose to remain in the township right next to where her constituency was.
She knew that the fight was far from over.
The majority of African women were still exploited at work and they still lived in squalor. She understood that women fought a disproportionate battle against apartheid.
Today, we still live in a violent patriarchal society where men refuse to acknowledge the role played by women in our Struggle. We undervalue the work that women do every day.
Madikizela-Mandela is a hero among heroes. She is a woman among men. We salute her for her bravery and her love for her fellow South Africans.
As we bid her farewell, we will always remember her as one of our Struggle heroes.
She ranks high up among other Struggle stalwarts such as Albertina Sisulu, Lillian Ngoyi, Adelaide Tambo, and Nokuthula Simelane, among others.
The Mother of the Nation filled a vacuum that was left when our leaders were exiled or banished to Robben Island.
They tried to cage her by banishing her to Brandfort in Free State but Mama Winnie, being the feisty woman that she was, defied the apartheid system and worked with the small community to start a community health centre.
When Soweto erupted and the children took to the streets, Madikizela-Mandela didn’t think twice. She left Brandfort and came to give the children support in Soweto.
She completely ignored her banning orders and addressed student gatherings at every turn.
Hamba Kahle Mkhonto. Qhawe lamaQhawe. Kufa ndini Akufi.